


To own a Gryffindor's Loyalty

by DarkkBluee



Series: To Seduce A Gryffindor [7]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Murder Mystery
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-19
Updated: 2020-05-19
Packaged: 2021-03-03 03:14:37
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,476
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24277957
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DarkkBluee/pseuds/DarkkBluee
Summary: For better or worse, a Gryffindor's loyalty never wavers.Harry learns this the hard way.
Relationships: Cedric Diggory/Harry Potter, Cedric Diggory/Tom Riddle, Harry Potter/Tom Riddle, James Potter/Lily Evans Potter
Series: To Seduce A Gryffindor [7]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1315193
Comments: 36
Kudos: 239





	To own a Gryffindor's Loyalty

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Arualiaa](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Arualiaa/gifts).



> This is the result of the tomarry discord server and my mind going off with it.
> 
> Note: In this chapter, For the current time-line, Cedric and Tom are in their seventh year, Harry, Ron, Neville and Hermione are in their sixth year and Luna in her fourth. Harry is the sixth year Gryffindor Prefect. Tom is Head Boy.
> 
> Also Note: Thanks to Aru for helping me perfect Harry and Lily in this part!

Harry looks out the window and observes the spring blooms. He sighs and leans back in his chair, wishing desperately he could be out there. But he forces his attention back to the Potions book he is has to read with a heavy sigh.

The Potter Family has always dealt with Potions since its inception. Linfred of Stinchcombe, the founder of their Family, was a Potions Master who had discovered many medicinal Potions. Since then, several family members have invented Potions that were both published and kept secret, recorded only in their Family Grimoires. His grandfather, Fleamont, quadrupled the family fortune by inventing Sleekeazy’s. His father instead used his inventions to become one of Hogwarts greatest pranksters. 

Needless to say, Potions is important if Harry ever intends to continue his Family’s tradition.

Tedious, but necessary.

“Boring, Boring, Boring, and oh, a Porcupine Hair Potion?” Harry snickers as he looks at the Potion which is a failed product of his grandfather in his grand quest for the perfect hair potion.

“Boring, Stone Skin?” Harry frowns at the oddly named Potion and looks at the ingredients list. “Troll skin and Basilisk Eyes? Basilisk parts have been used in Potions?” He remembers the Basilisk in the Chamber of Secrets and the fact that the last Basilisk was said to have been killed 500 years ago. Surely, if Basilisk parts can be used in potions, then they would be rare and expensive.

Harry puts the book down and picks up another book on rare potions ingredients to look it up and verify his suspicions. 

“Basilisk parts are expensive.” He whistles at the prices his ancestors have noted down in their own purchases and pens a note for Tom, listing down the last known prices.

“Well,” he stands and stretches. “Let’s send this letter to Tom and then a break!” Harry smiles as he goes upto the aviary for Hedwig.

Later that night, he picks up the Grimoire again and reads about how the Stone Skin potion works. He is curious about why Basilisk eyes are used as ingredients and finds his answer in a footnote.

> ‘ _While direct contact with Basilisk eyes can kill a being, indirect eye-contact (like through a reflection caused by water or mirror or through glass) will simply petrify the being. It is to utilize these petrifying properties of the eyes that we pair the Basilisk eyes with clear, purifying water, giving the drinker Stone-like Skin impervious to most magic._ ’

Harry sits up, a chill crawling up his spine as he recalls the mass petrifications in his fourth year. The fact that there is a 1000 years old Basilisk underneath the school. Add in the fact that Tom is a Parselmouth. 

“No.” Harry whispers. “Tom couldn’t have done that. Not without a reason at least.” Then he remembers the other major incidents that year.

“First came the attacks on Cedric. Then came the bullying complaints pointing at Tom as the culprit. Then came the petrifications.” He puts things together. “Someone was trying to frame Tom using fake accusations. Tom retaliated using the petrifications. But who could have done that? Targeted Cedric first and then Tom?” He muses. 

“Why Cedric first? No, the important thing here is not that Cedric was the first target, but that whoever it was got away with it. A Slytherin then. And why Cedric first? A Slytherin power-play against Tom.”

“Yes, that makes sense. A Slytherin went after Cedric as the weak link in Tom’s armor. When that didn’t work, he or she tried to frame Tom. But-” he frowns as he recalls Cedric being insistent on Harry staying out of the matter. “Cedric knows? They’re in on it together? Why didn’t they tell me?” 

His Occlumency training kicks in and his mind goes back to comb over his memories to find out why.

“It was… to protect me?” Harry smiles wryly and slumps in relief as he reaches a conclusion. “If I tried to find out who it was, then that person could have come after me too. Honestly, I don’t need protecting.” He puts the Grimoire away and lies back on the bed.

“I will find out and will protect you,” Harry whispers and turns off the _Lumos_ in his room. He is sure he’ll find more clues by going over the records of the incident from Hogwarts archive.

Only this time, he won’t tell his friends. They tried to stop him the first time over. He won’t let them stop this this time. 

**********

“Have you seen Harry?” Cedric asks Tom a week after Hogwarts starts again. It has been a week, yet Cedric has not been very successful in getting to spend some time alone with Harry. Harry resigned from the Quidditch team and was almost always in a hurry whenever he managed to corner him between classes. Cedric doesn’t know how he feels about Tom now, not after last year. But if anyone knows what’s going on with Harry, it will be Tom.

“He’s either at the Gryffindor Common Room or the archive,” Tom says from where he is working on his Alchemy essay. 

“And how do you know that?” Cedric demands as he takes a seat next to Tom. Tom stops writing and looks up, dark eyes meeting grey.

“He cut off our usual time together. I asked him why,” he says slowly, his eyes giving Cedric a slow once-over.

“So it was not something you did,” Cedric says, relieved. “Did he say why?” He presses and dark eyes snap back up to stare at him again.

“He said he is studying to take over the Family business.” Tom says as he turns to face Cedric. “Speaking of which, you should be studying too. It’s NEWTS year.”

“Ha ha.” Cedric scowls and crosses his arms. “I didn’t know you were so concerned for my grades.”

“Cedric,” Tom says softly and leans forwards. “I am always concerned. Aren’t you going to become the Minister of Magic? You cannot do that if you get an A for History of Magic. A minimum of EE is required before applying for any office above Secretary for a Department Head.”

“I have a study group to help me prepare for it,” Cedric replies, lowering his voice to match Tom’s voice in the stillness of the library. He doesn’t need a ban from the library during his NEWTs year.

“And how long have you been a part of this study group? Is it helping at all?” Tom croons and leans forwards again.

“Not much.” Cedric admits and leans back against his chair to maintain distance from Tom.

“I had the same problem a while back.” Tom’s voice turns nonchalant and he leans back in his chair, a quill twirling between pale fingers. “Binns makes the subject too monotonous to actually study during his classes and his exams have outdated syllabus, completely different from the usual OWL and NEWT questions. Study groups didn’t help because everyone is stagnating at the same place and faces the same problems.” He tilts his head, his lips curling in a mysterious smile. “So, I asked Slughorn to help me out.” He stops and stares at Cedric, waiting as an uneasy silence falls upon them.

“And?” Cedric breaks the silence.

“And I solved it.” Tom turns back to his work and starts writing again. Cedric feels a headache coming and frustration and annoyance war within him. He takes a deep breath and asks again.

“Can you tell me how?” He asks calmly and Tom turns to give him a long stare.

“The magic word?” Tom presses and Cedric grits his teeth.

“ _Please_ tell me how?” He asks again and Tom smiles.

“Sure. I’ll even take you there as I need to do revision too.” Tom stands and packs his bag to leave the library.

“Where?” Cedric asks and Tom turns to give him a brilliant smile. Cedric feels his heart skip a beat at the first real smile he has ever seen on Tom Riddle’s face directed at him.

“Theater. They’re playing _Wendelin the Weird_ today,” Tom explains. “We’ll sneak out at 8, after dinner to catch the late night show.” He stops and turns to face Cedric at the exit. “Wear something nice. And don’t eat too much for dinner. We’ll have refreshments at the performance,” he says and walks away.

Cedric just stands there before realizing he had just been looking at Tom Riddle’s well shaped back and blinks.

“Did he just ask me out on a date?”

**********

Despite Cedric’s doubts, the theater turns out to be a success and his history grades improve by leaps and bounds. Visiting the theater at least once a week to watch a new performance together becomes a routine for them.

Harry’s absence burns a bit less with Tom shadowing his every step. Their conversations are no longer tense.

Being rivals in love, co-partners in crime and then going to the theater to learn History is a surprisingly bonding experience. They are not enemies, not friends and not mere acquaintances either. After everything they’ve been through, they are perhaps a bit more than friends, with mutual respect and common interests.

The attempt on his life seems too long ago and kind of insignificant. 

Cedric concludes that Tom Riddle is indeed one charming bastard. Literally and figuratively.

And before he knew it, it was Winter break. 

Harry is still not spending much time with them as he used to before and now Cedric fears that they’re losing him. That there is another Ginny who is taking Harry away from them. He dreads the Winter Vacation because out of sight would mean he would be even further out of Harry’s mind.

**********

Getting permission for going through the Archives was difficult, but not an impossible task for Harry. Slughorn was always happy to help when he dangled the Potter Family Legacy and his need to research his ancestor’s school records before him. And crystallized pineapple. One can never go wrong in bribing Slughorn with crystallized pineapple.

It doesn’t take him long to find the names of all the affected students. It does take him long to find the link between. Two months, to be exact.

Making a statistical analysis of the victims, he finds that most of the petrified are either Hufflepuff’s or people who are friends with Hufflepuff’s. 

Considering that every one-in-four student at Hogwarts is a Hufflepuff, that statistic doesn’t seem so important. Surely everyone has a Hufflepuff friend or two.

But combined with the fact that every non-Hufflepuff who has either reported Tom as their attacker or were the first on site for the crime either knew Cedric or were related to him by at most 3 degrees of separation? And that every Hufflepuff who reported Tom _shares the same connection to Cedric?_

Once is an accident, twice a coincident but thrice is a pattern.

“What the hell is going on?” Harry murmured. “Is my data wrong? No, I’m sure it’s correct. Then what am I missing?”

If the current data wasn’t making the picture clear, that only meant it was bigger than Harry had first thought. He needs more information.

“Petrifications are only a small part of it. What am I missing for the big picture?”

The petrifications were only in the later part of the year and thus Harry concludes the bigger picture can consist of only one more thing: _The lethal attacks on Cedric._

There is only one more month till the end of the term, till Winter Vacation begins. Harry is determined to find the culprit before then.

He makes a timeline of the attacks on Cedric, noting down the details of each and trying to find a common ground. There is none and Harry frowns.

“The attacks started in January and continued on till the end of the term. They’re not periodic, but they increase in lethality. The first attacks were only aiming to maim, while the last few were aiming to kill. Going by that pattern, there should have been other signs. Minor ones.” 

Harry recalls his father’s case files to reach the conclusion. And he does what his father would have done next: check if Cedric had made any official complaints before.

“No, not Cedric.” Harry says and his eyes widening in surprise as he finds a stack of complaints one week into his search. “Other housemates had complained that someone was pranking Cedric.”

He adds these pranking complaints and makes a new timeline. The picture is grimmer still, for the results mean that someone had been targeting Cedric for the better part of the year, before abruptly stopping.

“Let’s go over this again.” Harry rubs his face and fights against the dizziness that comes from a perpetual lack of sleep. “The pranking attacks started early October and increased in periodicity until December. Then Cedric went back home for Winter vacation and there were no new attacks on anyone else at Hogwarts. He comes back from the break, and suddenly the pranks have turned into lethal attacks. Why did the attacker go from pranks to maiming and killing? What happened over break? No, that is not important. Why did the attacker aim for Cedric?”

“Something must have happened. Something between September first and November first. But what? What did Cedric do in that one month?”

_He went to Hogsmeade with Harry._

That was the only event that stuck in Harry’s mind. And suddenly, as he stares at the timeline of the attacks, he knows.

_The attacks started after Cedric asked him out to Hogsmeade._

Continued on as pranks till Winter Vacation. Started again as attacks aimed to maim after the break when school reopened in January, as if the attacker was angry their message wasn’t being heard. 

_Then Tom started getting accused of all sorts of things by students who were connected to Cedric by at most three degrees of separation._

The attacks on Cedric decreased in periodicity but increased in lethality when people started accusing Tom. Like the attacker was annoyed he was unable to attack Cedric as much as he wanted because people kept a close eye on him. 

_Then petrifications started._

And now, there were much bigger problems than two feuding fifth year Prefects. Hogwarts itself was in danger of closing down. 

It ended after the dementor incident. Probably because it was too close a call for Cedric and Harry to have lived through.

The scenario is pretty far-fetched and depends on a lot of assumptions and conjectures, but Harry gets a sinking feeling as he concludes that the whole debacle was simply a quarrel between Tom and Cedric. 

They were fighting. That was why both were so insistent that Harry stay out of it. It was personal _between them_.

He feels sick at this revelation. There was no way Tom and Cedric could have dragged the whole school into their fight. That Tom would have attacked Cedric with the intent to kill simply because he and Harry went to Hogsmeade together. That Cedric would have used his friendly relationship with his schoolmates to drag them all into a big character assassination on Tom.

_No. It was very much possible. Because he knows Tom and Tom is very much capable of doing whatever is required to get what he wants. Because he knows Cedric may not be violent, but he did try to guilt trip Harry during his second and third year and character assassination is right up his alley._

His friends did try to keep him out of it though. 

And with this, he decides to withhold his judgement and observe the situation to figure it out.

Harry takes a page out of his father’s book and uses his invisibility cloak to stalk Tom and Cedric in an effort to figure out their current situation. After-all, he can note the current relation and then map it back to get an approximate idea of the situation 2 years ago.

He is surprised by what he finds. 

_Tom and Cedric have weekly late-night dates._

They sneak away to go to Hogsmeade and watch Theater. They argue about the story and the characters till they go to the next show. And the whole watch and argue keeps on repeating and repeating for the whole month that Harry observes the two.

He observes Tom always staring at Cedric, emotions swirling in his dark eyes. Cedric avoided Tom’s gaze, fidgeting under the attention but always smiling and fired up for a debate. 

Harry concludes Tom has a crush on Cedric and Cedric is hesitating about reciprocating his feelings. 

Going back, mapping it with the timeline, he suddenly realizes that 2 years ago, Tom could have taken Cedric and him going to Hogsmeade as a date. There was even a kiss at the end. 

The attacks started because Tom was angry with Cedric and going too far in his jealousy. Cedric noticed and ignored it, not feeling the same as Tom but not willing to back down and leave Harry as the focus of Tom’s anger. He retaliated. 

The whole thing spiraled out of control, stopping when the risk on Cedric’s and Harry’s life became only too real.

*********

Finding one ugly truth behind the attempt on Cedric’s life and Tom’s reputation, Harry’s paranoia reaches new heights and he digs deeper in his mind. Ginny’s attack comes to mind and Harry resolves to take a detailed look in that case too.

He maintains his distance from Tom and Cedric, too engrossed in his thoughts to notice their worries and goes home for Winter Vacations. He knows Mrs.Weasley and Ron had asked his father to take another look in Ginny’s case. 

He finds a copy of Ginny’s case file in his father’s office and makes a copy.

That night, his first night back from Hogwarts, Harry sequesters himself in his room and reads the case file cover-to-cover. There is something in the file that tugs at his memory, but he is unable to pin it down.

He is happy that he’s found there’s something wrong with the file but disappointed at being unable to pin down what exactly it is. 

It takes him till Christmas to figure out what feels so wrong to him.

_Tom Riddle had sworn a magical oath as proof of his innocence._

Oaths made on one’s magic are serious and any Slytherin, especially one such as Tom, will avoid such oaths except in extreme circumstances. A stain on one’s reputation may qualify for some of them, but not for Tom. Tom had never offered oaths on magic as proof of his innocence back in fourth year. 

Granted a murder charge is worse than accusations of bullying, but….

Would a truly innocent Tom ever have given such an oath _so soon?_

_There were even witnesses for some of his bullying accusations._

Yet here, with no witness and a flimsy excuse, Tom takes an oath at first chance. Ron’s ranting could very well be dismissed as a by-product of his emotional duress and not facts. There was no _actual_ _proof_.

Harry could have believed it if Tom refused to prove his innocence based on lack of evidence. Then, after dragging it out for as long as possible, Tom should have publicly taken that oath to not only dismiss all accusations, but also improve his standing and worsen Ron’s.

But taking an oath without being prompted? At first opportunity? This is almost as if he wanted to take the first chance and whitewash himself.

_Tom was trying to nip any suspicions in the bud._

His hands tremble as he opens the file to find the exact wording of Tom’s oath.

_‘I, Tom Marvolo Riddle, hereby swear on my magic that I had nothing to do with Ginevra Weasley’s accident during the Gryffindor-Slytherin match either directly or indirectly. I swear that I am not responsible for Ginevra Weasley’s suicide. So mote it be.’_

The file slips from his hands and his legs give out.

The reason for his father’s dismissal of Tom as a suspect was the same as Harry’s initial assumption about Cedric’s attacks and Tom’s defamation. They both assumed that there was only one perpetrator. 

_‘I had nothing to do with Ginevra Weasley’s accident during the Gryffindor-Slytherin match either directly or indirectly. I swear that I am not responsible for Ginevra Weasley’s suicide.’_

Tom did not have a hand in Ginny’s suicide, but a murder was different from a suicide.

_‘I had nothing to do with Ginevra Weasley’s accident during the Gryffindor-Slytherin match either directly or indirectly. I swear that I am not responsible for Ginevra Weasley’s suicide.’_

Tom did not have a hand in Ginny’s Quidditch accident as the wording covers all possibilities. But what if there were two people responsible, one for Ginny’s accident during the match and another for Ginny’s death? 

Then the oath falls apart. 

Harry recalls how shaken Cedric was after the attack. He had looked haunted, always sleep deprived, twitchy and paranoid. Harry had put it down to his big heart and the fact that Cedric and Ginny were close friends who bonded over quidditch. The incident had likely hit too close to home.

If Cedric could have orchestrated a brutal character assassination of Tom just a year prior, then could it be he also arranged for Ginny to have an accident last year? Did he have it in him? And why would he do that?

Harry curls up on the floor, his knees bending and touching his stomach, his head braced against them.

“Why?” He rasps out. Harry knows his conclusions are again far fetched, but something tells him that he is not wrong. 

_And that scares him more than anything._

His best friends, the two people he feels closest to after his parents, have such depths to them. Such darkness that he has not noticed in them before. He thought he knew them, but what if the past six years were all a lie? 

“Why would they do that to Ginny? To me?”

He lays there trembling, silent sobs racking his frame and mind blank, unable to cope with the shock. And as the first rays of sunlight reach him through the windows, so does his brain awaken and a thought sparks. 

_Why do that to Ginny?_

And it all comes back full circle when he recalls why Tom had first targeted Cedric. 

_Could it have been so simple? Can it really be so simple?_

Fourth Year: Tom had targeted Cedric because they had gone on a date. Cedric had refused Tom’s advances for some reason, which started _that_ whole mess. 

Fifth Year: Cedric took a page out of Tom’s book because he had started dating Ginny. Tom, true to himself, finished the job when he saw how much seeing Ginny everyday affected Cedric.

All because Cedric liked Harry and did not want to see him together with Ginny.

Harry stands up and sways, weakened by his overnight stay on the floor. He rushes to the toilet and proceeds to puke up the contents of his stomach.

It was his fault. 

Tom and Cedric’s fight in his fourth year could have been avoided if he had not misunderstood Cedric’s reason for asking for a kiss. Maybe if he had turned down Cedric at that point, would he and Tom have gotten together and not hurt each other? 

If he had not started dating Ginny, then maybe Cedric would not have targeted Ginny out of jealousy and Tom wouldn’t have killed Ginny to soothe Cedric’s conscience.

Ginny’s death, even indirectly, is on his hands.

*********

It takes him three days to come to terms with the guilt, and the fact the Ginny’s death was not his responsibility. It may have been triggered by his actions, but his aren’t the hands that hurt her or killed her.

_No, those hands belong to his friends._

Harry is a teenager, but he is a teenager with a loving family. An auror father and an auror godfather. Which is why one day, during family dinner, he decides to ask his parents the question that has been haunting him

“Can you hurt for someone? Can you kill for someone?”

_Why did Cedric hurt Ginny? Why did Tom kill her? Why would they think it’d be_ okay _to do that? Can love really justify murder? Is that it?_

The table is still as the people sitting take in those words.

“Did anyone say something, Prongslet?” Sirius grits out as James and Lily exchange a look.

“No,” Harry says slowly and lies. “But this is an ethical question that has been bothering me for a while. Why? Are you expecting anyone to say something to me?”

“Yes.” James Potter closes his eyes and takes a deep breath. Lily reaches over to hold James’s hand and Remus puts a comforting hand on Sirius’s tense shoulder.

“Yes to what?” Harry presses and James looks his son in the eyes. 

“Yes to both. Yes, I can and have hurt someone for Lily. And yes, I was expecting Severus to tell you about it.” He says as he speaks slowly, but firmly.

_What?_

Harry had not expected that at all. He knew Professor Snape didn’t like his dad but that was because one of them tried to kill the other?

“Yes.” Sirius agrees as well, and Harry’s head snaps to stare at his godfather in shock. “I know I am capable of planning to kill someone and even going through with it for James and Remus”. He pauses and then adds as an after-thought. “And also just because I was annoyed at Snivellus.”

“You and dad have done something to hurt Professor Snape?” Harry asks, stunned. “Tried to kill him? For dad and Remus? _Because he was annoying_?” He looks at Sirius and James and shakes his head. “I can’t believe it.”

_He can’t believe such a thing could be the reason Ginny’s dead. Tom never liked her anyways, Cedric only barely tolerating her when they were together. He hid it better than Tom did but…. All this happened because she was ‘annoying’? No, there_ has _to be another reason._

“Back during their first year,” Remus starts, “when James saw Lily for the first time in Hogwarts Express, he fell in love at first sight. However, Lily didn’t give him any time of the day and Severus was always together with her. They were childhood friends and neighbours and very close to each other. Your father felt threatened and bullied Severus pretty bad for the first 5 years. Then, Severus and Lily had a bad argument and a falling out. Severus started snooping, determined to find out my secret and expose it to strike against the Marauders and get back in Lily’s good graces. Sirius found out about it and tricked him into following me to the Shrieking Shack on a full moon.” He stops to take a drink and Harry knows what is going to happen next.

_Could that be it? Ginny found something Tom and Cedric didn’t like? Impossible. Tom is a better Slytherin than that. Ginny would never have found something he didn’t want her to._

“Professor Snape could have died.” Harry states instead, thoughts still whirling away in his mind. “Facing a werewolf on full moon night as a fifth year student should have killed him.”

_It did kill Ginny._

“It should have,” Remus agrees. “But your father heard about the plan from Sirius and got cold feet. He rushed over and dragged Snape back from my werewolf-self by the skin of his teeth. Severus owes your father a life debt,” he explains. “Just makes him even more spiteful about the whole thing. Lily not forgiving him didn’t help matters.”

_Which is exactly the crux of the matter. His father stopped Sirius. Why,_ Harry despairs _, didn’t Tom or Cedric stop the other?_

“Some years after your birth,” Lily continues and Harry turns to face her, “I made my peace with Severus and resumed our friendship. My main reason for doing so was you. He teaches Potions at Hogwarts and holds grudges for long. You were going to go to Hogwarts in a few years and I did not want his hatred of James to affect your school years.”

“So you would not have forgiven Professor Snape if not for me?” Harry gives a shaky smile. “I feel loved.”

_Could Harry have forgiven Ginny if Tom and Cedric hadn’t killed her? He knew she did something to him to make herself more alluring. Ginny had always been ‘Ron’s little sister’ to him. Never girlfriend material. Not before that day…._

It doesn’t matter. She’s dead. Professor Snape isn’t. And he doesn’t even know what Professor Snape did to make his mother angry with him. It might not be similar to his situation at all.

“Yes. That is exactly it.” Lily purses his lips. “Did you know what he said when he asked me to forgive him? He said that he was sorry he said such words to me. To _me_. I asked around and it turns out, he had been saying those same insults to everyone for years. I doubted him, for if the man can mistake me as his target once in his anger, then it is very much possible he will do it again, and again, and again in the future.” She takes a deep breath and lets it out. 

“To put it simply, his apology was petty and I did not want to forgive him. But your future was more important to me than not accepting the half-hearted apologies of a bitter man.” She reaches out and holds his hand under the table.

“But,” Harry argues, “Dad, Moony and Padfoot were responsible for bullying Professor Snape. And their actions, especially Padfoot’s, resulted in nearly killing him. How can you forgive Uncle Sirius’s murder attempt? What if he had succeeded? And then, Moony would have been the one responsible. How can you forgive them?”

_No matter what Ginny did, does it justify their actions? How can Harry ever forgive Tom and Cedric? Even his father and Padfoot didn’t actually go through with it. Tom and Cedric_ did _._

Harry is desperate for an answer. _Any_ answer.

“I asked James why he did it. Saved Severus. He said, ‘I didn’t want my best friend to be an unwilling murderer and be an accomplice to it. That’s why I will become an auror’,” his mother smiles. 

“It was this man whom I fell in love with. Not the one who bullied Severus, not the one who supposedly got cold feet at the last moment of a murder attempt, not the one who unapologetically pranked everyone and held biased views. Your father, and his friends too, grew up. They changed and more than made up for their mistakes. How do you think a man like Severus, with no backing, no pureblood support and hardly any money, became the youngest known Potions Master and got a job at Hogwarts?” 

His mother’s words are just what he needs. Harry smiles, light and true for the first time in 3 days.

_Redemption._

Yes, he can work with this. 

People can do terrible things for love. They can also grow and change and be different things to different people.

Harry decides to take a chance on _his friends_.

He will support Tom’s love for Cedric. He has read the signs and knows that sooner or later, Cedric will fall for Tom too. And when that time comes, Harry will support Cedric’s love as well. 

  
No matter how much that hurts him.

****

Later on, Harry lies awake on his bed and thinks back to this conversation. His mind is clear and stress free for the first time in months. And thus, as he reflects back on today’s conversation-

Harry comes to a slow, horrifying conclusion.

He had already found out Tom and Cedric had victimized the entire castle in their fight _months ago_ . Since then, Harry has been subconsciously _stalling_. He had tried to think of another mystery to solve, that perhaps he should gather all information before telling his father.

Even after all that, his first question had been _why?_ Not to mention spending days thinking about it, agonizing about it.

Fact remains, Harry should have told his father at first chance. 

He should have done that when he first realized Tom released a Basilisk and a Dementor in a school full of children. He should have gone to a professor when he realized Cedric ran a smear campaign against Tom. He should have straight up confessed to James Potter and Sirius Black as soon as he pieced together Ginny’s _murder_. He should have told Ron, supported his friend through thick and thin.

Should have, would have, could have.

But he _didn’t_.

Harry had already decided to take a chance on Tom and Cedric. His mother has just given him a reason to do so.

**Author's Note:**

> Finally decided to increase the number of parts and add side stories instead of just one huge final part. This isn't the end, unfortunately. There's more coming...
> 
> Kudos are nice ~ Comments are appreciated ~


End file.
